1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image copying apparatus and an image copying method for reading images on an original document and copying the images on a sheet. More specifically, the present invention relates to the image copying apparatus including an automatic document feeding device, and an image copying method in the image copying apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, universal designs aiming to embody products easy for any people to use have been adopted. In this circumstance, an image copying apparatus including an automatic document feeding device is also desired to incorporate universal designs. Conventionally, in the image copying apparatus, a document reading device is located at the uppermost portion of the image copying apparatus. This is because the document reading device is also used as a reading unit for an original document in a statically placed state. For this reason, in many cases, a document inserting port of the automatic document feeding device is also located in the vicinity of the uppermost portion of the image copying apparatus. In a general large-sized image copying apparatus, the uppermost portion of the apparatus where the document inserting port is located is about 1200 mm in height. Therefore, operations of inserting original documents into the document inserting port and checking the inserted state of the originals are not easy for persons in wheelchairs and children short in height.
As an attempt to solving this problem, there has been proposed an image copying apparatus which utilizes a manual sheet feeding tray or a sheet feeding cassette as document feeding means for persons in wheelchairs (see e.g. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-122062). These are sheet feeding means conventionally located at low position. According to this apparatus, for example, a feeding path for feeding a sheet-like document from the manual sheet feeding tray to an automatic document reading device is formed. Then, the sheet-like document after reading operation is discharged to document discharging means or to the manual sheet feeding tray.
However, in the conventional image copying apparatus described above, a feeding path is additionally formed inside the apparatus. Therefore, the document feeding path has an increased length by this additional length. In general, it is more difficult to ensure the feeding reliability of an original sheet as compared with a sheet for forming images. This is because original documents are of a wide variety of sheets. For example, there are many cases where the end of the sheet is folded or where the sheet is entirely warped. There are also many cases where the friction coefficients on the original sheet surface do not distribute uniformly depending on whether ink is present or absent, and the like. If paper jam occurs in the course of the feeding path, there is a fear that an important original is damaged. For this reason, it is not much preferable that the document feeding path is long in length.
The conventional image copying apparatus described above also has a problem in discharging the original document reading operation. In order to discharge the document at a low position as is the case of inserting, the original document is discharged to the manual sheet feeding tray which is the same tray from which the original has been inserted. Thus, only one sheet of original can be processed at one time. Specifically, one sheet of original is inserted into the manual sheet feeding tray to read the image thereof. The original after the reading operation is discharged from the same manual sheet feeding tray. Then, the next original is inserted. Therefore, it cannot be that the operation efficiency is good and there is a problem that the productivity of the copying operation is low.